Kayaking

After 20 days of hiking we decided that it was time for a little relaxation. Luckily, at the end of the trail we caught a "bus ride" to a very nice city called Pokhra that was right on a lake, and had very nice mountain views. The bus ride, as we have come to expect in Nepal was not the best, and by that I mean it was completely overcrowded and full. So we decided to ride with the locals on top of the bus for about 4 hours to Pokhra. It was not the most comfortableride, as you can imagine, but an experience anyway.
Once in Pokhra, we went out for steak dinners at the Everest steak house, and got our first taste of actual "medium rare" meat since the start of the trip....it was great! We stayed in Pokhra for about 4 or 5 days. One day we rented a rowboat and a fishing rod and gearand paddled around the lake and fished. No Luck! After that we decided to go on a river kayaking trip. We did one day of training on the lake to teach us how to do rescues and rolls. Me and Kristin both could roll on our own, which alot of the others could not.Our group was very mixed, and a very fun group. Other than us, there were 2 Israelis, 2 Canadians, 2 Austrailians, and a solo Israeli girl.The next morning we headed out to the river for the first of our 3 days of river kayaking. The first day was relitively easy going, with a few small rapids, but mainly just teaching us how to get into and out of the river eddies(currents). At night we camped on the beaches by the river, and had a good meal of vegetablecurries, and pasta. The next day we hit some bigger rapids, up to class 2+. I think just about everybody wiped out at least once, and Kristin got very upset thatshe wiped out right out the beggining of the big rapid, and had to swim down. That night, which was Halloween, we had dinner again, compared old Halloween stories, and some locals from the nearby village came down and had a little party with dancing and music. The next day we hit the biggest rapids, getting up to 3+. There were about 5 sets of rapids, and we both made it down the first couple of sets with no problems. The last big rapid we both made it down almost until the end, and then at the last huge wave Kritin crashed and got stuck with her kayak on the wave. I was right behind her and her kayak which caused me to wipe out when I hit them. I am still holding that one against her!Anyway, after that day, we caught the bus back to Kathmandu, and stayed there again for 2 days until our flight out to Bangkok on Nov. 4th. After all this, we are headed to the beach for some R & R!!!!